artist's statement

I print the photograph; I intensify and deface the print, making the image more complex (surreal) than what was captured by the shutter click, though that click was composed and never cropped.  My process is painting or photoshopping the image, then scanning, then printing the scan, then re-painting and re-printing multiple times.

I fight with my images.  Often, I obscure and obliterate the image with erasures and sandpaper.   Sometimes, the finished work bears no or small resemblance to the photograph underneath.  I insist, nonetheless, on starting from a photograph.

My goal is to create a portrait or a landscape from a world that never existed.  By concentrating on the mark I make, I inject the me into the image, and, thus, travel outside the lines.  With many of the ocean portraits, the mark is made by lengthening the image.  This refers to and portrays the breadth, mystery, and enveloping power of the ocean.

A specific moment or truth or authentic happenstance is not represented nor relevant nor immortalized.  Rather, a fantasy is made literal and legitimate, illuminating my inner complexity.